ASUS M2N32-SLI & Epox MF570SLI: AM2 Wunderkinder
by Wesley Fink on June 28, 2006 5:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Test Setup
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. For better comparison standard test results (1280x1024) were run with a single NVIDIA 7900GTX on all platforms. A single ATI X1900XT was also tested at standard resolutions on the ATI Reference board. Consider this result a sanity check for single card performance and Crossfire. It should not be directly compared to other test results. Since SLI and Crossfire are not yet interchangeable, 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF SLI was run on the NVIDIA-based boards with a pair of 7900GTX. 1600X1200 4xAA/8xAF Crossfire was run on the ATI using an X1900 XT Master + Single Crossfire. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results.
AM2 benchmarking used Corsair PC-8500 (DDR2-1066) 2GB kit at 3-3-3 timings at around 2.2V. In recent months the memory market has moved from a 1GB kit to a 2BG kit being the common memory configuration. Our new DDR2 test standard will therefore be 2GB and we used the 2GB DDR memory for best comparison.
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor: | AM2 4800+ (X2, 2.4GHz, 1MB Cache per core) |
| RAM: | 2 x 1GB Corsair Twin2x2048-8500C5 Tested at DDR2-800 3-3-3 2.2V to 2.3V |
| Hard Drive(s): | Maxtor MaXLine III 7L300S0 300GB SATA2 (16MB Buffer) Hitachi 250GB SATA2 enabled (16MB Buffer) |
| System Platform Drivers: | NVIDIA - 9.34 ATI - LAN, Audio, SMBus drivers as required |
| Video Cards: | 1 x EVGA 7900GTX - All Standard Tests 2 x EVGA 7900GTX - SLI 1 x ATI X1900XT - ATI Standard Tests (for Reference) 2 x ATI x1900XT (Master + Standard) - CrossFire |
| Video Drivers: | NVIDIA 91.31 ATI Catalyst 6.4 |
| CPU Cooling: | AMD FX62 Heatpipe AM2 Cooler Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ PowerStream 520W |
| Motherboards: | ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Epox MF570SLI ATI Crossfire Express AM2 Reference Foxconn C51XEM2AA Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 Biostar TForce 590-SLI MSI K9N SLI Platinum |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Professional SP2 |
Test conditions were maintained the same, as much as possible, over the platforms tested. For better comparison standard test results (1280x1024) were run with a single NVIDIA 7900GTX on all platforms. A single ATI X1900XT was also tested at standard resolutions on the ATI Reference board. Consider this result a sanity check for single card performance and Crossfire. It should not be directly compared to other test results. Since SLI and Crossfire are not yet interchangeable, 1600x1200 4xAA/8xAF SLI was run on the NVIDIA-based boards with a pair of 7900GTX. 1600X1200 4xAA/8xAF Crossfire was run on the ATI using an X1900 XT Master + Single Crossfire. All results are reported in our charts and color-coded for easier identification of results.
AM2 benchmarking used Corsair PC-8500 (DDR2-1066) 2GB kit at 3-3-3 timings at around 2.2V. In recent months the memory market has moved from a 1GB kit to a 2BG kit being the common memory configuration. Our new DDR2 test standard will therefore be 2GB and we used the 2GB DDR memory for best comparison.
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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 28, 2006 - link
Asus opted to design for PCI access. With SLI using dual-width video cards there are still two PCI slots available, but the single x4 PCIe is covered. With single-width cards in SLI 3 PCI and an x4 PCIe are available.MacGuffin - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
The picture of the motherboard on Newegg is different: the AT review shows a PCI slot above the black PCIe x16 slot...but the retail board at Newegg has a PCIe x1 slot. Except for that, everything else looks identical. Are there two versions of this board floating around? One with 3 PCI/1 PCIe x4 and the other with 2 PCI, 1 PCIe x4 and 1 PCIe x1?Wesley Fink - Thursday, June 29, 2006 - link
There are 2 versions of the board - with WiFi and without. The retail version we tested was WITH WiFi built in.